The covid-19 pandemic is among the main reasons why people in Colombia are currently insuring themselves more, especially for Protect your life against eventual contingencies that may arise. Only at the end of 2022, some 25 million people in the country had one of these policies with different coverages, according to the Federation of Colombian Insurers (Fasecolda).
(See: New life annuity entity enters into operation).
The demand for these life insurance grew in 2022 by about 5%, after the premiums went from 8,682 million pesos, in 2021, to 10,229 million, a year later.
“Thanks to the optimism of Colombians after the covid and the reactivation of mortgage loans leveraged by the support offered by the insurance for the payment of the obligation in the event of the death of the debtor“, warns the insurance union, which adds that”Colombian families who suffered the loss of a loved one or their disability and who had some type of life insurance received compensation for 2.8 billion pesos”.
The demand for insurance to cover health In the face of a calamity, they were also favored by the pandemic, since more people acquired them to be able to recover.Receive quality services in situations that compromise your life. According to Fasecolda, there are already 800,000 people with health insurance. The foregoing explains the growth in premiums from 4,858 million, in 2021, to 5,902 million, while the claim rate of the policies increased to 75%.
In general terms, The Colombian insurance industry attended claims for fires, winter weather, traffic accidents, health problems, occupational hazards, pension allowances, among others, for 22.8 billion pesos, about 1% more compared to the previous year.
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In the general insurance sectors, the largest claims payments were made for events such as the balance of the compensation corresponding to Hidroituango, vehicle repair costs and the thousands of victims of traffic accidents, among others, which totaled 11.5 trillion pesos, 28.9 percent real per year more than in 2021.
One of the busiest lines of business in 2022 was the Soat, They warn from Fasecolda. The results of this deteriorated by the high costs to attend the accident rate.
Soat.
Indeed, the branch went from having a negative result of 192,800 million pesos, in 2021, to one of -402,800 million at the end of 2022.
(See: Little coverage against catastrophes?: 40% of assets do not have insurance).
In that last year, around 9.4 million Soat policies were issued, 4% more than the previous year. Although premiums grew close to 12% in that period, the value of claims paid increased by more than 27%, reaching 2.4 trillion pesos.
“This insurance continues to be in crisis in a context in which road accidents exceeded historical levels in the country: more than 8,000 deaths and close to 1 million injuries; and evasion and fraud persist“.
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However, in the union they warn that with the measures adopted by the Government in December 2022 and with those that are expected to be adopted soon, mitigate corruption in collections al Soat and reduce the number of victims of traffic accidents.
Only in January 2023, 880,000 policies had been issued which, compared to the 692,000 in 2021, reflects a growth of 27 percent compared to the same period of the previous year in Soat.
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